Putting Baltimore City Back Together Again

The Challenge to Lead – Part I

Matthews W. Wright, M.Ed.

By all accounts, it should now be crystal clear to most businesses, politicians, clergy, citizens and most importantly the media that the causal foundation of the issues facing Baltimore are not the conditions of addiction, teen pregnancy, youth arrests and homicides, a weak and under funded educational system or a dysfunctional family structure.  No, these are merely the simple yet seemingly evasive symptoms of the core concerns facing this and other urban cities.  The real culprits supporting these conditions that use to lie below the surface and remained behind closed doors are the blind-eye turning away when it should observe, note and report. When professionals lack fortitude to stand up for what is right and not making public pronouncements to stakeholders with indignation rather than agreeing with the status quo. Yes, and those parents who are so interested in their material obsession and addictions that they chose and learned not to listen, lead, direct or execute.  Many of their elders are housed in senior settings and no longer part of the household to teach and admonish.  Finally public servants that make split decisions and too often, at times, choose wrong.  Yes, they are the true issues causing the deadly conditions we experience today!  The former matriarchs and patriarchs of families in neighborhoods, teachers in the classroom and principal at school, the policeman on the beat or the neighbor that watched your business as well as everyone else’s masterfully handled these conditions.  A neighbor could merely bring the nature of the activity to the attention of a family member and within some designated time, the matter would be resolved and the lesson was learned. These are some of the conditions that are essential to the city’s restoration!

Another important aspect that has added to current conditions is the ever-apparent onslaught of improper individual promotion in crucial areas.  Too many people who have reached their limited ability levels as described in the “Peter Principle” are promoted due to  “coat tail riding” and are basically useless in the positions they occupy.  The magnitude of past conditions is minor in comparison to the explosive nature we see and consider as today’s norm.  What we use to watch on TV like “The Wire” and “The Corner” are today’s reality! As citizens, we must step up, face up and accept what are our responsibilities!

I remember times when the integrity within communities and neighborhoods was in tact and abundant.   People sat outside their homes during the summer and men tipped their hats when they passed by women.  Community alcoholics would not drink or urinate in public. Then, they had the decency to go deep into the alleyway.  Those times are long gone and will not return. 

We have forced upon ourselves an indifferent and different time where fear, alienation and materialism have gripped us to the point that institutions, formal groups and individuals are experiencing high levels of discomfort and an uneasy – yet eerie sense that neither space nor people are as revered today as in the past.  The lessons of family rootedness or simply love for one another, experienced in former years has not been fully learned during the last forty years.  Former values have not been carried forward completely to assist today’s family structures.

Today’s conditions represent a developing “Perfect Storm”.  It could be pandemic!  We are at a place in time where structure and base-line controls in corporate management, media, government, institutions, communities, families and individuals are skewed, abandoned, lost and in some instances just misplaced.  Quality leadership, at all levels, is required to right conditions that have festered for too long. From the home and communities to heads of government and its agencies, each must take a stand to protect and secure this “watch”.  Leaders no longer communicate an intolerant temperament with legislative/administrative actions to change long over-due conditions impacting constituents.  In many instances, they too have abandoned the areas to only come in as required.  No longer do I see a display of passion or expressed indignation energizing, prodding or coercing people and institutions to modify, relent and create opportunities that are beyond the reach of the common person. That was the manner of past upright leadership.

“Band-Aid” approaches will no longer work or be accepted!   Governing leaders, agency administrators, media, clergy and citizens must greatly reduce biases and assumptions to better assess themselves, their missions and the required vision for future work.  Agencies need to determine how their current activities correlate with the over-all broad goals of growth and sustainability in the city.  Quantifiable and measurable outcomes need to be established, developed and executed from documented baseline assessments to match or surpass set goals and to determine acceptable levels of achievement.  Such baselines along with the construction of quality core indicators will determine appropriate transitions and evaluation points.  Doing thusly, agencies will be assured that proper actions were taken to achieve the stated goals, meet budget objectives and complimented the broader vision.  Then, and only then, are we assured that actions taken, with appropriate and measured steps, will measurably reduce the serious conditions we face today.  Many other areas like Atlanta, GA, Charlotte & Ayrsley, NC, and Washington, DC have accepted the challenges they faced and are working to bring vision and change to urban settings.

True collaborations must be sought and accomplished to properly serve all citizens, communities and expand the vital and needed infrastructure that makes the community whole and vibrant.  A different approach and mind-set must monitor all agency efforts and validate the data used to accurately serve all of the citizens of Baltimore.  A former Mayor adopted a campaign asking the community to Believe.  To put Baltimore back together again as ONEBALTIMORE, we must all BELIEVE!  Does media Believe?  What about government, agency heads and civic leadership?  Do we?  Time and actions will determine the verdict because with Determination and Will, it has been done!!!